Self-Complexity

Definition

People differ substantially in how extremely they react to good and bad events in their lives. Some people experience dramatic swings in mood and selfappraisal in response to the ups and downs of life, whereas others do not. Some experience adverse mental and physical health consequences of stressful events, but others do not. The self-complexity concept helps us understand these differences.

According to Patricia Linville's original formulation of the self-complexity model, people differ in the degree to which they maintain a complex, differentiated view of the self. This model assumes that the representation of the self in memory consists of multiple self-aspects, which may be organized in terms of contexts (home, school, with friends), roles (student, athlete), traits (creative, nurturing), behaviors (studying, playing tennis), and time frames (past, present, and future selves). Intuitively, greater selfcomplexity involves having a more differentiated view of the self. The greater the extent to which a person makes distinctions among the attributes or features associated with various self-aspects, the greater the person's self-complexity is. Furthermore, a person who is higher in self-complexity is likely to associate different emotions and self-appraisals with different self-aspects. For example, a person may feel good about himself or herself as an athlete but not as a student.

History and Background

The concept of self-complexity provides a perspective on several enduring issues and paradoxes in the psychology of the self. First, it is directly related to a classic debate about whether people have a unified, single self (a view espoused by many early self theorists) or multiple selves (espoused by William James and most contemporary researchers). The current self-complexity concept assumes that self-knowledge is represented and processed in terms of multiple self-aspects related to various contexts of experience. Second, the self-complexity concept helps people understand the classic paradox—How can a person maintain seemingly discrepant beliefs about the self? A person may associate different self-attributes or behaviors with different aspects of the self, allowing inconsistent self-knowledge to coexist. For example, a woman may perceive herself as outgoing in small social gatherings yet shy at large parties. Third, the self-complexity concept helps explain the enduring paradox—How can the self be both stable yet malleable? Different self-aspects may be cognitively activated or accessible at different points in time or in different contexts, thus creating a flexible working self. Furthermore, certain core self-aspects (e.g., self as a moral person) may be stable over long periods, whereas others may adapt rapidly in the face of changing experience (e.g., self as a competitive athlete). Also, one may develop entirely new self-aspects as one enters new realms of experience (e.g., self as a parent).

Importance and Consequences

People differ substantially in their degree of selfcomplexity. Do these differences have any important consequences for their lives? People also differ substantially in how they react to good and bad events in their lives. The self-complexity concept is important largely because it helps to explain these differences in reactions to life events.